Snowbird's play from the right

On a personal level, Sullivan described Smith as “a hard-working, good person who just unfortunately happens to be wrong on a lot of policy issues.”

Former Rep. Bill Zeliff, a Republican who inherited Smith’s House seat in 1991, recalled that his predecessor attracted a devoted local following.

“He had a lot of people who believed in him and would walk to the ends of the earth for him,” Zeliff said.

In Smith’s bid to replace Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who is not running for reelection, Zeliff predicted that Smith will fashion himself as the “fighter for the average man” — a theme that he employed during his congressional career.

“His chances depend on whether he’s rusty, which I don’t think he is,” Zeliff said, “They depend on whether he’s prepared and willing to work as hard as he has in the past. If he does, he’ll be formidable.”

For the moment, however, Smith acknowledges that his campaign will be a bare-bones operation, fueled by low-dollar donations. He doesn’t plan to hire consultants or even purchase campaign paraphernalia. When he attends events, he hands out photocopied fliers with his biography — as he puts it, “not some slick brochure.”

“I’m not doing the button and bumper sticker routine right now,” he said.

Smith plans to travel from his campaign headquarters — the Sarasota home where he has lived since 2003 — several times a week to events around the state. In addition to his wife of 42 years, Mary Jo, Smith has enlisted the help of several friends from his monthly poker games as campaign volunteers.

One of them, Ed Valek, who lives in Sarasota County, said he is organizing a meet-and-greet with Smith later this week at a local business. He has written the former senator a $500 check and plans to give more.

Valek, who described his friend as a “Ronald Reagan Republican,” said that politics inevitably comes up around the poker table, where Smith sometimes delivers informal lectures on the Constitution and the Federalist Papers.

“He’s a former U.S. senator,” Valek said. “With that kind of a credential, he could be an elitist, but that’s the last thing he is.”

Smith said he has ample time between now and the Republican primary next August to raise his profile in a state where he has never won public office. (He briefly considered running for the Senate from Florida in 2004, but his campaign never fully materialized.)

“It doesn’t matter whether you live in Tallahassee or Manchester, Sarasota or Concord, New Hampshire or Florida,” Smith said. “If you believe in the principle of the Constitution and our Republican Party, then you should be willing to support the candidate who supports those principles.”

George Cuesta, who owns a Miami construction company and leads a group of several dozen conservative Republicans, is Smith’s target audience. Cuesta recently invited the former senator to a meeting with his members and said that he found Smith’s prior experience in Washington attractive. Though Cuesta said it was far too early for an endorsement, he said that a politician in Smith’s mold was a much better fit for his group than Crist.

“I think this will be one of the most important Senate races in the country,” Cuesta said. “I have concerns about Charlie Crist as a candidate. I don’t think he would represent Florida or the Republican Party in the best possible light.”

Even with receptive audiences like Cuesta’s group in Miami, Smith said he invariably faces questions about his political viability. He said he would wait until early next year to decide whether to stay in or drop out.

But Smith cautioned against writing off his bid too soon. His favorite quote, he said, comes from a New Hampshire newspaper columnist who wrote decades ago: “The roadside is littered with the remains of those who have underestimated Bob Smith.”